January 3 in History

Historical Events on January 3

1521

Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.
1653

By the Coonan Cross Oath, the Eastern Church in India cuts itself off from colonial Portuguese tutelage.
1749

Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.
1749

The first issue of Berlingske, Denmark's oldest continually operating newspaper, is published.
1777

American General George Washington defeats British General Lord Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton.
1815

Austria, the United Kingdom, and France form a secret defensive alliance against Prussia and Russia.
1823

Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico.
1848

Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of Liberia.
1861

American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States.
1868

Meiji Restoration in Japan: The Tokugawa shogunate is abolished; agents of Satsuma and Chōshū seize power.
1870

Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge begins.
1871

Battle of Bapaume, a battle in the Franco-Prussian war occurs.
1885

Sino-French War: Beginning of the Battle of Núi Bop
1888

The James Lick telescope at the Lick Observatory, measuring 91 cm in diameter, is used for the first time. It was the largest refracting telescope in the world at the time.
1911

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake destroys the city of Almaty in Russian Turkestan.
1911

A gun battle in the East End of London left two dead and sparked a political row over the involvement of then-Home Secretary Winston Churchill.
1913

An Atlantic coast storm sets the lowest confirmed barometric pressure reading for a non-tropical system in the continental United States.
1919

At the Paris Peace Conference, Emir Faisal I of Iraq signs an agreement with Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann on the development of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
1925

Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy.
1932

Martial law is declared in Honduras to stop a revolt by banana workers fired by the United Fruit Company.
1933

Minnie D. Craig becomes the first woman elected as Speaker of the North Dakota House of Representatives, the first woman to hold a Speaker position anywhere in the United States.
1938

The March of Dimes is established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1944

World War II: Top Ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Vought F4U Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Mitsubishi A6M Zero.
1945

World War II: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz is placed in command of all U.S. Naval forces in preparation for planned assaults against Iwo Jima and Okinawa in Japan.
1946

Popular Canadian American jockey George Woolf dies in a freak accident during a race; the annual George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award is created to honor him.
1947

Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.
1949

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the central bank of the Philippines, is established.
1953

Frances P. Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.
1956

A fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower.
1957

The Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
1958

The West Indies Federation is formed.
1959

Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
1961

The United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba over the latter's nationalization of American assets.
1961

The SL-1 nuclear reactor is destroyed by a steam explosion in the only reactor incident in the United States to cause immediate fatalities.
1961

A protest by agricultural workers in Baixa de Cassanje, Portuguese Angola, turns into a revolt, opening the Angolan War of Independence, the first of the Portuguese Colonial Wars.
1962

Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.
1976

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights entered into force.
1977

Apple Computer is incorporated.
1990

Manuel Noriega, former leader of Panama, surrenders to American forces.
1993

In Moscow, Russia, George Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
1994

More than seven million people from the former apartheid Homelands receive South African citizenship.
1999

The Mars Polar Lander is launched.
2000

Final daily Peanuts comic strip.
2002

Israeli forces seize the Palestinian freighter Karine A in the Red Sea, finding 50 tons of weapons.
2004

Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashes into the Red Sea, resulting in 148 deaths, making it one of the deadliest aviation accidents in Egyptian history.
2009

The first block of the blockchain of the decentralized payment system Bitcoin, called the Genesis block, was established by the creator of the system, Satoshi Nakamoto.
2015

Boko Haram militants raze the entire town of Baga in north-east Nigeria, starting the 2015 Baga massacre and killing as many as 2,000 people.

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